TOPIC: dynamips-wxp.exe in GNS3 100% cpu usage

Is anybody else running into this issue, where dynamips-wxp.exe in GNS3 uses 100% cpu power? From what I read online, this happens when you have more than one router running? How are people handling this when running the GNS3 simulation.

Could I possibly be missing a configuration setting? From what I gathered, you have to have the executable path for Dynamips set correctly to C:\ProgramFiles\GNS3\Dynamips\dynamips-wxp.exe which I have done successfully.

It looks as GNS3 is a resource hungry simulator. I'm starting to think nothing will ever beat a true Cisco lab. But then again, when you start dealing with the advanced labs, it gets rather expensive.

To lower the CPU usage, GNS3 needs whats called the idle-pc value of the IOS image you have.

Create a router, then start it. wait until the console window of the router stops giving messages. So it shows you "Router#". Now right click on the router and select idle-pc. It will take like 10 or 20 seconds, then it will show you several idle-pc values to choose from. The ones that are marked with * are the best. Try one of those.

If the CPU usage doesn't drop, do the whole thing again and choose another value from the list. Do this until you reach a good value. The CPU usage should drop to about 5% to 15%.

I have managed to drop the CPU usage when applying an idle-pc value. Why is this required? This worked right away, and I don't believe they talk about this in the documentation. But I could be wrong.

As for connecting to the router, I get the same result. I select console which opens a telnet localhost window. The prompt says: Connected to Dynamips VM "R0" (ID 0, type c1700) - Console port I have uploaded the correct image for a 1700 series router.

Do I continue to miss a configuration setting? I have left the window open for about 3 or 4 minutes, just in case some lag was a factor.

I'm pretty sure this is a configuration issue somewhere, but I'm not sure exactly where.

As for connecting to the router, I get the same result. I select console which opens a telnet localhost window. The prompt says: Connected to Dynamips VM "R0" (ID 0, type c1700) - Console port I have uploaded the correct image for a 1700 series router.

Do you mean here that the console windows hangs empty and router output does not show up? If so, I faced the same problem with some IOS images. My only fix to it was to use another image. I'm not sure why it happens. Try increasing the default RAM for the image, you will find this setting in the same window were you configured the default IOS images.

Keep in mind I only have one Cisco 1721 router running. I couldn't image creating a enterprise topology with 8+ routers and other network devices. I'm pretty sure a tweaking is necessary, but the question is where?